The Boer Conflicts
First Boer War (1880-1881) First Anglo-Boer War, also known as Transvaal Rebellion, broke out between British colonisers and the Boers inhabiting the Transvaal Republic, and lasted from the 16th of December year 1880 until 23rd of March 1881, resulting in British defeat and Transvaal regaining of independence. This conflict was the first in which one British forces suffered defeat since the American Revolution, almost 100 years before. Causes of the War - Expansion of British Empire: At that time, the was an intent to form a confederation of the independent Boers in Transvaal and Orange Free State, various African groups and the colonies, that would be under the British control. This expansion was driven by three main factors: the race between the competing European colonial powers, such as Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium; the discovery of diamonds, and, later, gold rush in Transvaal; and lastly the wish to control trade routes to India that omitted the Cape(a British territory). - Problems in the government of Transvaal: British officials saw an opportunity in the recent bankruptcy of Transvaal Republic that followed a war with Pedi, and used this to make the population aware of the bankrupt state they were in, as well as how little control the government held over black people like Zulu and Pedi, which dispirited the Boer population. The small efforts of the republic’s president T. F. Burgers did not stop the Britain from taking control over the republic. - British Annexation of Transvaal: After collecting 3 000 votes that approved British annexation of the republic(votes of the English speaking part of the population) - even though the majority opposed this proposition, there was a peaceful takeover by Great Britain, and the Transvaal Republic ceased to exist becoming the British colony of Transvaal Colony. The Transvaal People’s Council decided to send a delegacy to Britain in order to inform the government about their opposition regarding the annexation. - Boers’ refusal to accept the annexation: The British government largely ignored the request to bring down the annexation of the republic, and as the republic still was in a bankrupt state, the self-government that had been promised to the Boers was not implemented, and the British involved themselves in conflicts with Zulu, there was a growth of passive Boer opposition. Despite continuous refusal of the British government to let go of the area, the Boers called for independence, until it was concluded that non-violent resistance was fruitless. War On december 13th there was an official end of passive resistance when the leaders of the “opposition” raised the Transvaal republic flag and declared rejection of the British rule. The first shots of the war were fired in Potchefstroom where Boers laid siege at the old fort, coming from the British force(the siege ended when the force surrendered because of hunger). There was an inequality between the number of British soldiers - about 1 500 - and the 7 000 Boer soldiers who got additional aid when some Free State joined them. There were 4 main battles and several sieges - Potchefsroom being one of them - but the British forces were exposed to the large number of Boer soldiers who were skilled with firearms due to hunting, had the advantage of knowledge of the terrain and had pretty easy targets - the red uniforms of the British. The last and decisive battle of the war ended with a historically humiliating defeat of the British army, who occupied the hill of Majuba, close to a outpost of the Boers, who were stationed beneath the hill. As the slopes were too steep, the Major-General could not bring out his artillery to shoot at the Boer wagons and tents, and his forces that were untrained in guerilla warfare, could not resist the attack of Boer soldiers who used the tall grass to their advantage, picking off one soldier at a time, resulting in panic and desertion of several British troops. Aftermath of the War The defeat at the Majuba Hill was so humiliating to many British, and they vowed retribution. As a result of the war, the republic regained its independence, however, due to Pretoria convention of 1881, it still had to have foreign relations and policies regarding its black inhabitants approved by Great Britain, and it was not allowed to expand its borders towards West - meaning it was technically, still under British influence. Second Boer War(1899-1902) Second Boer War, also known as Second War of independence, was fought between Great Britain and the two Boer republics - Transvaal and Orange Free State, beginning on October 11th year 1899 and ending on May 31 of 1902, with a British victory. Causes Similarly to what caused the First Boer War: it was the desire to form a confederation under the British rule; and it was the question of which nation would control and draw benefits from the gold discovered in Witwatersrand. Transvaal had the opportunity to become the most powerful country in Africa, however being a small country with a relatively small workforce it had restricted abilities to extract and use this material, therefore there was an influx of foreigners, mainly from Britain who seeked employment and chance to make a fortune. This led to an unproportionally big number of immigrants(called uitlanders) when compared to the small number of Boers, and resulted in fear that this newly created majority would usurp political power - to prevent this, the newcomers were not granted voting rights and in effect treated as second-class citizens. The tension between the two groups gave Britain a pretext to intervene, and so the ultimatum posed by the Transvaal republic - that all the British troops had to be withdrawn from the borders within 48 hours - was rejected, leading to declaration of war by the two Boer republics. War and Peace The war was divided into three phases: the first one consisting of a series of pre-emptive strikes(with the purpose of preventing the attack from the enemy’s side by disabling them) led by the Boers on the territory controlled by the British by besieging several garrisons. During the second phase, in year 1900, the British initiated another offensive which introduced an increased number of soldiers, in order to relieve the sieges and invade Transvaal’s capital Pretoria - succeeding in both. The third and last phase involved much offensive from both sides - the Boers fought using guerrilla warfare, raiding important places of communication such as British telegraph sites, railways and places intended for storage, which was answered with burning of Boer farms in order to cut off the supplies to the soldiers, and moving civilians to newly established concentration camps(where thousands of Afrikaner women and children perished due to illnesses and malnutrition). While the war was the most expensive conflict that Britain had participated in, between the Napoleonic wars and WW1, the government did not expect it to go on for so long, and it became less popular, especially after hearing about the concentration camps. The Boer forces surrendered and signed a peace treaty that would allow them to once again become part of the British Empire, however, holding the promise to self-govern in the future(which was fulfilled when the Union of South Africa was created in 1910).